Research development
Definition
Research development is the strategic, proactive work of helping researchers win funding: finding opportunities, building teams, and strengthening proposals. It differs from research administration, which handles compliance, submission, and award management.
How it works
Research development works upstream of submission, focusing on whether faculty pursue the right opportunities and write competitive proposals. Typical activities include:
- Identifying funding opportunities and matching them to faculty.
- Running limited submission competitions.
- Building interdisciplinary teams for large center grants and multiple PI projects.
- Editing narratives, reviewing specific aims pages, and organizing mock reviews.
- Training early career faculty on programs such as K awards and the NSF CAREER award.
- Building relationships with program officers and foundations.
The field has its own professional association, the National Organization of Research Development Professionals (NORDP).
Research development vs research administration
Research development helps a proposal become competitive; research administration makes sure it is compliant, submitted correctly, and managed properly once funded. Research administrators in the office of sponsored programs check budgets, sign applications, and handle pre-award and post-award compliance. Research development staff are closer to the science and strategy: they ask "should we apply, with whom, and how do we win?" At smaller institutions one office does both, and the line between them is often a matter of job title.
Why it matters for institutions
Research development matters because funding success depends heavily on applying to the right programs early, and most faculty do not have time to monitor thousands of funders. A small team cannot personally advise hundreds of researchers, so offices rely on newsletters, workshops, and discovery tools to scale. The common measures of success are proposal submission volume, award rates, the number of faculty who apply for the first time, and growth in large collaborative awards.
Common mistakes
- Sending one generic funding newsletter to every faculty member, which most stop reading.
- Focusing support only on faculty who already ask for help, missing those who never apply.
- Starting team building for large collaborative calls after the notice of funding opportunity posts rather than during the forecast stage.
How Atom helps
Atom does the matching work a research development team cannot do by hand for every PI: it builds a profile for each researcher from publications and prior funding, checks eligibility, and sends each one a personalized weekly digest, which averages a 78% open rate. It also suggests teams for multi-PI grants and flags limited submissions daily. The University of Memphis set a record year for proposal submissions on Atom.
Frequently asked questions
Research development helps faculty find opportunities, build teams, and write competitive proposals. Research administration handles compliance, budgets, submission, and award management.
A research development office matches faculty to funding, runs limited submission competitions, builds teams for large grants, and reviews proposals before submission. Its goal is more and stronger applications.
Small teams scale by automating opportunity matching and outreach, then spending staff time on high-value proposals and limited submissions. Personalized funding alerts reach far more faculty than one-to-one advising.